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The Currency of Doubt
'The Currency of Doubt '''was the seventeenth episode of ''Fillmore! to be produced and the fourteenth to air. It was originally broadcast on September 20, 2003, the same day as the premiere of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Premise Ten Thousand smoits go missing from prized dancers Tony and Tina. Fillmore and Ingrid investigate the case but when it's revealed that Tony has been gambling smoits behind Tina's back it looks as if there's more to lose than original thought. Meanwhile Fillmore is obsessed with fixing his broken sash. Synopsis Act 1: A Dance of Deceit A pair of dancers, Tony and Tina, are practicing for a dance competition under the watch of their coach Natasha. After practice ends, Tony gives Tina a milkmeit bar for breakfast, and pulls a $10 smoit bill off it. Natasha has no idea why the two would even collect the smoits, even though Tony says it’s for the prizes, before leaving to her doctor’s appointment. Tina is confused as she thought Natasha’s leg would have healed by now, but the latter said that there are some injuries that can never be healed. Tony and Tina plan to add their $10 smoit to their collection, but when the latter opens their locker, they are horrified to see the they are gone. The Safety Partol is called in to investigate. Tony explains to Fillmore that they’ve been collecting smoits from different snack brands for over a year, Tina eating the milkmeit bars, and himself eating porridge chips. When Fillmore asks why not the milkmeit bars, Tony reveals he’s lactose intolerant. Ingrid says she found no forced entry in the locker or the dance room, meaning the thief had access to the locker combination. Fillmore said the only three who knew it were Tony, Tina, and Natasha, but the latter is more concerned that her dancers care more about the smoits than the competition. That causes Tina to break down as she ate milkmeit bars for nothing. In order to learn more about the smoits, Fillmore and Ingrid interview Paulie, a local snack expert in the school. Paulie explains that smoits ae promotional items that have different amounts in the same way real life dollars act. A person with enough smoits can buy somebody toys, electronics, games, and haircare products, and a lot of X Middle School kids are into collecting them. However, a lot of them tend to spend their smoits too fast, unlike Tony and Tina who had $10,000 worth of smoits saved. Afterwards, Paulie tells Filmore and Ingrid that there’s an underground casino where kids gamble off their smoits in the basement of the Nutrition Barn, and he heard a rumor that Tony was a frequent gambler there. However, Paulie tells the two that they’ll need a good amount of smoits to get in, and the personal are not friendly towards Safety Patrollers. When Fillmore asks Paulie if he could be open for more questions, the latter said only until the end of the week as his family was moving, and tells them that they should not trust anybody. At the Safety Patrol Headquarters, Fillmore and Ingrid get dressed for their undercover assignment, only for the former to break his sash when taking it off. Ingrid suggests he get a new one, but Fillmore doesn’t want to part with it as he had it from the start, before patching it up with tape. At the casino, Fillmore and Ingrid are allowed in thanks to a person of reference Tahama provided them with; Ken Himmelman. Fillmore, under the name of Earl Gibb, plays Dandy for Candy as normal poker is not allowed, and manages to rack up a lot of smoits from the casino owner Johnny Nevada. Before leaving, Fillmore asks Johnny if he knew Tony, and the latter revealed that Tony is in heavy debt to him. Suddenly, Ken Himmelman comes in, and recognizes Fillmore as the Safety Patroller who busted him for pen pal fraud. Before Fillmore and Ingrid could leave, they are cornered. Act 2: A Stolen Trust Cornered by the casino staff, Fillmore and Ingrid manage to escape the casino thanks to a combination of snow cone and cotton candy spray. Once far away, the two have all the evidence they need. Tony owes a lot of smoits to Johnny, and as he had access to the locker, he used the $10,00 smoits to pay off his debts. The next day, Fillmore and Ingrid are at the dance room, with the latter noticing a picture of Natasha with a boy. Natasha explains that she used to dance until her former dance partner, Larry, dropped her and injured her leg, and now, she dances through Tina and Tony. When the dance pair arrive, Fillmore asks Tony when the last time was he gambled at the casino, leaving the latter to admit his gambling debts to Tina. However, while Tony denies stealing the smoits stash to pay off his debts, Tina is too hurt by his lying to believe him, and breaks off their partnership. Tina makes a press conference to announce this to the School, and announces auditions for a new dance partner. Afterwards, Fillmore and Ingrid feel that there isn’t much to do other than close to case as they caught Tony, and the smoits are possibly gone by now. As they walk off, a mysterious person watches them. At lunch, Tony angrily confronts Fillmore for ruining his life, believing he was framed for the theft, and revealing he’s still paying off his debts by waiting tables for Johnny. Returning to the dance room for another angle, Fillmore finds Tony’s lunch box, containing the lunch he had the week he got sick. Fillmore finds a hard-boiled egg, and Tony explains that while he normally eats five a day, he got sick after four. Fillmore and Ingrid find a logo on the bottom, revealing that it says provolone, a type of cheese. The two realize that somebody did set up Tony by sneaking him a cheese shaped egg, causing him to get sick due to his lactose intolerance, and they promise him that they’ll find the perpetrator. Tony asks Fillmore for one more favor; he wants him to talk to Tina and tell her that he isn’t a delinquent daddy-o. In the auditorium, Tina is going through auditions, but is not happy by what she’s seen so far. Fillmore tries to get Tina to let Tony back in, but she refuses as, despite knowing he’s innocent, she’s still mad at him for lying. Then, they see Natasha push out Larry who was trying audition, and Fillmore recalls what Natasha told him about her leg. However, Tina tells Fillmore that Natasha’s leg is better, and the only reason she doesn’t dance is because she doesn’t trust Larry anymore, just like she herself doesn’t trust Tony. However, Fillmore believes that Tina doesn’t want to forgive Tony despite making a mistake, and said that it’s more about forgiving herself. Then, O’Farrell comes out to do his audition, and the sight causes a shocked Fillmore to rise out of his seat, ripping his sash again. At the Safety Patrol Headquarters, Ingrid has tried calling different cheese places to find out where the egg-shaped cheese came from, but has gotten nowhere. Fillmore tells Ingrid that Larry could be a suspect as he’s acting on revenge against Natasha for wrecking his career after the accident. While Ingrid continues to search for the origins of the cheese, along with Larry’s address, Fillmore leaves to see the school’s seamstress to get his sash fixed. As the seamstress works on it, Fillmore notices a pink dress, and asks if it’s for Tina. However, the seamstress said she doesn’t know her name, just that the dance has a partner. Later, Ingrid finds the cheese shop where the egg-shaped cheese came from and takes Fillmore there before closing time. Just as they get to it, a masked person jumps down and knocks down a set of crates on them. Act 3: A Bitter Betrayal My Sweet Fillmore and Ingrid escape the collapsing crates, but the mysterious person jumps around and runs off, just when the store closes. Fortunately, Ingrid manages to get the store owner to let them in by using her cute face. After seeing the egg-shaped cheese, the store owner recognizes it as a special treat English children for getting good grades on report cards. Afterwards, Fillmore and Ingrid walk down to Larry’s house for questioning, only to see Paulie hassling some of the moving crew, revealing that he’s moving to Pocatello, Idaho. Once at Larry’s house, they talk to his mother who reveals that Larry’s real name is Lancelot, named after one of the knights of the round table. Larry’s mother also reveals that he’s gone out for the night, going to the dance competition, before offering them some British delicacies. Afterwards, Ingrid sees that Larry’s mother is an Anglophile, a person obsessed with English culture, and he could have had access to the egg-shaped cheese. With all this together, Fillmore and Ingrid believe Larry to be the culprit. At the Fifth annual Dance Competition/Chili cook off, Fillmore and Ingrid go backstage to see O’Farrell and Tina practicing, with the latter harshly criticizing the former for his poor workmanship. When asked if they saw Larry anywhere, Tina revealed that he’s been hanging around all afternoon. While Ingrid said that Larry couldn’t have ben the one who stopped them at the cheese shop, Fillmore gets a revelation and asks Tina where her pink dress was. Tina said she would never wear pink as it made her look blotchy, and only a blonde could wear that color well. Fillmore tells Ingrid about what he learned from both the seamstress and Tina during the auditions, and they both put the final pieces together, Natasha and Larry were back together and were the smoits thieves. Before Natasha and Larry could begin their dance routine, Fillmore and Ingrid confront them on the smoit robbery. As it turned out, Natasha was finally able to forgive Larry for the accident if only to win the competition, but their biggest obstacle was Tony and Tina as she trained them too well. So, Natasha and Larry worked together to break the pair up and frame Tony at the same time. Larry swapped out some of Tony’s eggs for the cheese so the latter would get sick, and Natasha, who was the only other one who knew the locker combination, opened it and stole the smoits. The only other thing they did was act like they still hated each other so nobody got suspicious. With their schemes open, Natasha and Larry run off, only for Ingrid to corner the latter. During the chase, Fillmore loses his sash in attempt to stop Natasha, only for her to kick it off and into a vat of chili. As Fillmore and Ingrid corner Natasha with the smoits, the latter bemoans that her career is over, and begs them to let her keep the smoits so she at least had something. However, Fillmore points out to Natahsa that she ruined her own career by holding onto a grudge for too long. Suddenly, Paulie takes the smoit bag as he plans to use the cash in Pocatello. As he runs off, Paulie reaffirms his belief of never trusting anybody, only to be stopped by Tina, as she knocks the bag out of his hands and sends the smoits flying away. After, Tina runs off to Tony and the two make up, while O’Farrell brings Natahsa and Larry back to the headquarters. Knowing he needs a new sash after losing his old one, Fillmore asks Ingrid to help him pick a new one. Category:Episodes